Le Pois Penché and Paix Park

Along Maisonneuve there is a restaurant called Le Pois Penché, or the 'Leaning Pea' whatever that means, it has a ritzy looking France-style facade and red awning. The main reason to do this painting were the orange construction pylons. Our Mayor wants to rid downtown Montreal of orange cones so they are an endangered species now. I checked on google and this restaurant averages $100 per person, although it has 4.5 stars so it must be good. That's $22.22 per star, plus tax and tip. 

Le Pois Penché, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Paix park is down on Clark street near China Town, its not somewhere I would hang out but over the years I have done a few paintings of it, like in this blog which shows the interlocking brick lined with grass. I never  knew there was a massive dome structure in the background because the trees always block the view in summer, and you can't see the dome from other angles. I happen to be walking with my bike north on Clark and saw it. No idea what it is, tried google but no luck. The shops around it are various retail and ... other types of establishments I wont mention here. Guess it used to be a planetarium or disco club maybe. 

Paix park with dome, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  

Tough conditions, freeze arse off

Down in Trenholme park after picking up the LUFA Farms vegetables I tried to make paintings but encountered some difficult conditions. Cold wet wind and mixed precipitation hovering around zero ℃ was more challenging than painting on a nice clear day at -20 ℃. At -20 ℃ or so, the moisture is gone from the air, and assuming no wind and proper clothes, its not that bad really. Today though, awful! I found a scene looking up an embankment at an old no bike parking sing, where the red circle had faded to a pale green which I found very interesting. The sun was struggling to get through the clouds. 

Faded bike sign v2, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026

This was the first attempt but everything went badly. The positioning of the sign was off from the get go, then the paint was freezing so I went to put salt water in the cup, dropped a palette, spilled some water, froze my arse off. Being stubborn I was thinking, no way I want to go home empty handed so I tried to finish version 1, then went and did a version 2 which worked out a bit better. Our weather is going to continue yo-yo-ing up and down for awhile. 

Faded bike sign v1, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Freezing rain and night-cicles

After picking up my newly repaired bike from Davelo, their mechanics do a wonderful job of it and were able to provide some new used parts for replacement, I made a quick painting of the freezing rain. This view is looking up Courcelle street towards Westmount, with a stone train bridge overpass. On the right, the small building is part of a water facility or electrical station. It takes some skill to paint a mushy mess like this, I get a lot of practice at this time of year.  

Tunnel freezing rain, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Having to take care of some experiment for a student who could not drive in to campus today, I was there a little late and did a quick painting on the way out. Standing in a concave corner where the basketball court meets up with the athletic center, I had enough roof overhang to block most of the freezing rain. These icicles were actually over on a hand railing, so I transported them up to the eave in order to create effect. A strong flood light illuminated the icicles against a gloomy background containing the admin building. As usual, all the admin lights were on, not only do they work late, but they come to work when the University is officially closed for ice storms. Our admin is to be commended for the extra effort, or rather, their normal diligent effort. Night-cicles is a compound word I made up, like icicles at night. 

Night-cicles campus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Heavy traffic vehicles

Traffic was heavy, literally, like really big vehicles were rumbling by. Some kind of tanker, maybe propane or liquid nitrogen, a city bus, cars, vans and trucks filled the road next to Decarie expressway. In the background is the old Snowdon theater, now a condo complex with the entire Snowdon theater facade restored and still intact. When buildings have historical value and define the local scenery, Montreal puts a label on it and forces developers to save the facade. Today was a rare bit of nice weather, but we are headed for snow and freezing rain later in the week. Yay.

Heavy traffic vehicles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Ice river trees and tomb stones

After yesterday's commotion downtown I felt more like some peace and quiet and a few nice trees to paint. Taking the bus, then walking, I arrived atop Mount Royal. In 2021 I wrote a funny blog about my Climb up mount Royal. No drama today... the first painting shows an idyllic scene of trees on a rolling landscape, with just slight hints of melting snow. 
 

Pleasant tree line, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

 

Truth is, the heaps of snow were melting fast, which created an ice river down the walking path, with the refurbished chalet in the background. Tall metal poles marked the path, a lot of people were trying to tip toe around slush and water. 

Ice river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Had I brought galoshes it may have been possible to venture further into the park. With just my leather winter boots I had to stay on relatively dry ground, like the path around Beaver Lake. You can see how the ice is thawing, which created a variety of colours, textures and reflections. 

Melting Beaver Lake, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

On the way down the hill I saw a brilliant blue horizon with tomb stones in the middle ground, and trees overlapping. It was kind of a fun painting to do, a fierce wind was blasting me, but with higher temperatures it was no more than an annoyance. Cars zipped down Chemine Remembrance, that is the name of the road on the west side, on the east side its called Voie Camillien-Houde which will stay open for the foreseeable future. There were plans to turn that road into a bike/pedestrian pathway, but cars are more important. 

Blue horizon tomb stones, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Flag waving downtown Montreal

Doing a bit of shopping downtown and then I got a bit caught out in front of Alexis Nihon mall on st Catherine street. A large protest was walking west, shouting 'Hands off Iran' with a large police escort all around. These protestors were waving Palestinian, Lebanese, and both kinds of Iranian flags including the official one, and the alternative one with a lion at its center. Politically, these people were against the war and were pro-Iranian regime for various reasons. In the painting, they are on the right of the scene. Following them, were a group of pro-war people who are against the Iranian regime, waving American, Israeli, Canadian, and Iranian flags with the Lion in the middle. They are on the left of the scene. Each group were carrying placards showing different political figures dead and alive, I wont get into the details. A large group of bicycle police wearing neon vests stood and separated the two groups until the latter group dissipated. I just wanted to get the heck out of there since I understood the dynamic, but was kind of stuck on the sidewalk, also it was starting to rain. About 10 minutes later, everyone was gone and things went back to normal, so I made this painting on the spot, from memory.  

Protest counter protest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Earlier I heard a celebration going on, music was playing and people were waving flags. These people were celebrating the war in Iran because they don't like their government. I don't know how I feel about it, generally I prefer peace and peaceful solutions, violence rarely results in anything but more violence. You should have seen all the tourists and weekend shoppers... st Catherine was mostly blocked by the protest, and people were shouting in various languages and waving all sorts of flags. So visitors were trying to walk down streets and alleys so as to avoid the to-do. 

Celbration glass skyscrapers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Finally, just a painting of a tree with Christmas lights still on it, looking up. I embellished the angles and colours of the background buildings for effect. The sounds of sirens and people chanting could be heard in the distance. 

Tree looking up, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Tent encampment, highway overpass

With our reading week drawing to a close, that's when the University gets to read for a week, I made a couple of paintings on my way back from the bike shop. Unfortunately the bike needs work and I might be on foot for the next few days or longer depending on the availability of parts. In st Henri, there was a large tent encampment near the train tracks, now just a few tents remain due to the cold, and other problems they had here like a fire, and an unfortunate death last year. A train of crude oil cars rumbled by as I painted. Its a wonder that the city still permits housing construction near train tracks, let alone a tent encampment. But whenever they shut an encampment down, the people have to move somewhere else. 

Encampment train tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

This highway overpass was built as part of the Turcot interchange project, it is highway 136 going downtown (to the right in the painting). In the 1950's before there were any highways, this land used to be a small village of maybe a hundred people with a church, a park, some shops and houses. The village was completely wiped to make way for the highways, although now the area is quite built up with large condos and box stores. Go back far enough and this was indigenous land, although likely part of Otter Lake (little lake Pierre) which was drained by the Lachine canal. Quite a bit of history for a boring looking highway overpass!

Overpass snow banks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026